SIGNED LIMITED EDITION OF DAVID MAMET’S FIRST CHILDREN’S BOOK

MAMET, David and SULTAN, Donald. Warm and Cold. (New York: Fawbush Editions [Solo Press], 1985). Folio (measures 18 by 22-1/2 inches), loose sheets in original blue cloth clamshell box. $2600.

Signed limited first edition of this unusual experiment in children’s literature, number XX of 20 copies numbered in Roman (from a total edition of only 120 copies) signed by playwright Mamet and initialed by artist Donald Sultan, with two mounted color photographs and nine large original lithographs.

Designed as a book for their daughters, Willa and Frances (whose mounted photographs appear at the beginning and end), this collaboration between playwright David Mamet and artist Donald Sultan describes the difficulty of fathers' commuting to work and leaving small children behind. Mamet's poem, however, has also been read as "a grownup's attempt to recreate a childhood he never knew" (Thea Diamond). The poem is characteristically spare and Sultan's expressive lithographs, hand-colored en pochoir by Cinda Sparling, are correspondingly simple.

A fine copy of this monumental children's book.